His long jump duels with Carl Lewis became legendary and Larry Myricks will be remembered as one of the greatest jumpers in U.S. track and field history.
While a student at the Mississippi College, Myricks broke onto the national scene in spectacular fashion in 1976, winning the NCAA title and placing second at the Olympic Trials. At the Olympics, he qualified for the final but suffered a broken foot on a warm-up jump and was forced to scratch from the final. He was still ranked sixth in the world, the first of 14 world rankings in the long jump. One of his best seasons was 1979 when he won the NCAA, U.S. National and World Cup titles and was ranked first in the world.
He was also on the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic teams, achieving his best-ever jump of 28' 8 1/4" at the 1988 Trials. He was fourth in the Olympics in 1984 and third in 1988. He was third at both the 1987 and 1991 World Championships and was also on the 1983 World Championship team as a 200m runner. In the 200, he was twice ranked nationally and was ranked fifth in the world in 1983.